Millions Of Venezuelans Now Rely On Just 20 Aging Planes As They Are Cut Off From The Rest Of The World

President Trump's campaign to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is having the unintended effect of stranding Venezuelans across the globe who were relying on air travel to get back to one of the world's least-connected countries. The 28 million citizens of the South American country are now dependent on an aging fleet of just 20 commercial aircraft that are operated by a handful of obscure local airlines, according to information from the International Air Transport Association.

Those carriers are now rerouting flights, charging incredibly high prices and moving passengers through neighboring countries to connect them to their final destinations, The Wall Street Journal reports. It's led to a nightmare fallout: holiday plans have been trashed, families are unable to bring elderly relatives medication and less-fortunate Venezuelans are stuck in foreign countries.

At the end of November, Trump said Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed after the Federal Aviation Administration warned of a "potentially hazardous situation" because military buildup near the country, according to The Journal. Add in the near-miss collision between a civilian jet and a U.S. military plane near Venezuelan waters, and it's not much of a surprise that over a dozen international carriers have stopped serving the country.

It wasn't always like this for Venezuela. At one point, the country was an air travel destination. Hell, Caracas was one of the first destinations for Air France's Concorde in the 1970s, and from the 1990s through the mid-2010s, Venezuela was one of the highest-yielding aviation markets in the world, WSJ reports.

Now, travelers who used to splurge have very few options. Conviasa, a U.S.-sanctioned state airline, flew to a small number of allies in Latin America and ran some little-used routes to Moscow, Damascus and Tehran. You know, all the big spots. In the past few years, the country averaged about 15,000 passengers flying in and out of the country weekly — mostly from Spain, Portugal, Panama and Colombia. That's not many, but it's a hell of a lot more than the 1,000 to 2,000 per week it sees now.

It isn't just people, either. These flight disruptions are hurting cargo deliveries — especially for pharmaceutical products and other perishable goods, as well as airplane parts that these small airlines desperately need to keep their old-ass fleets going.

Cutting Venezuela's air links adds to the pressure that Trump and the U.S. government are putting on Maduro's government. It has also done things, like intercept oil tankers and impose a partial blockade. The Venezuelan President says the airspace issues are part of a "psychological war" to size up Venezuela's oil wealth. Here's hoping that neither of these two mild-mannered men loses their tempers and starts a conflict that takes things from bad to worse.